The People You Meet in Heaven
by GreenField
Summary: To get to Heaven, you have to forgive and forget.Elizabeth Hollington is about to meet three people she hoped she'd never see again...and two she thought she'd never get to see again.Only then can she live the life she always wanted with the man she loves
1. Phillip

**A/N: This is only going to be a five-chapter thing, set on the day Elizabeth dies. I know it's been done before, but reading some other examples of this made me think about the five dead people that have most affected Elizabeth's life...and how they would try to help her get free of Purgatory and into Heaven, where she belongs and where her soul mate is waiting. Please review!**

"George?"

That was the first word that Elizabeth spoke when she opened her eyes. She did not know where she was, but a small voice in the back of her mind told her that this was not Heaven, not yet. She wondered if George was here. Oh, please let George be here.

She looked down at herself in disdain. Although her hands had lost their veins and wrinkles and she could tell that she looked young and vital again, she wore the nightdress that she had been wearing just moments ago...moments ago when she slipped away from her three weeping children. What had young George been trying to tell her, she wondered? If only she could have heard it before she slipped away.

She became aware that she was lying down upon some invisible thing that she could not see, and rose unsteadily. The air was grey and powdery around her, and there was a breeze that toyed languidly with her Titian hair, but she was not cold. Her feet were bare. Oh, where was George?

"I am here, my love"

Elizabeth could hear his voice, but even after turning in a full circle, and looking up above and down below, she could not see him.

"George?" She cried, "Where are you? I'm frightened now, I cannot see you"

"There is no need to be frightened" George's voice was calm and measured, but she could hear the passion that he was restraining, "I cannot be with you yet. You must pass a test"

"A test?" Elizabeth's voice was shrill, "Have I not been tested enough?"

"Not like this" George paused, "Look below you again"

Elizabeth did. This time, she could see that she was standing upon a shimmering wisp of cloud, and not far beneath her burned bright red and orange flames – she could suddenly feel their scorching heat and hear their crackle. Her eyes widened and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to scream.

"Is that - ?" she whispered.

"Yes. Hell" George replied.

"You're not in Hell, are you?" she asked fearfully, "I couldn't bear that, George"

"No, my love. I am in Heaven. And I had to complete a test much similar to yours. Look above you again"

Elizabeth did so, and above her she could see the much talked of golden gates of Heaven. A slender spiral staircase let to the gates, and up there the clouds were fluffy and white, like little sheep.

"Heaven!" she exclaimed delightedly, "That is where you are! Oh, George, how do I get there? Will it hurt me?"

She could hear the smile in his voice, "No. You just have to be the brave girl that I remember, the girl that I love. You have done so well since I died"

"Thank you" Elizabeth blinked back tears, "What is the test?"

"You will be faced with five people, also dead, people that have shaped your life in some way or another. Some of them you must forgive, for you do not like them, and they have wronged you. Some of them you will be delighted to see, and will follow into Heaven's bounds"

"Will you be one of them?"

"No. I have shaped your life too immeasurably to even need to be included" he laughed, "But I will be here watching you, to make you feel safe. And when you pass this test, you can be here in Heaven with me, and we will be together for eternity, just as we always wished, and can watch our children grow"

"It sounds so wonderful!" Elizabeth cried, "Of course, I shall begin the test! Where do I – oh!"

Her husband was walking towards her. She had heard of his death without regret a few years ago, during the reign of Queen Mary. She had not expected, nor wanted, to see him again.

"Good luck" George's voice came like a whisper in her ear, then fluttered away. Phillip stopped before his wife and bowed sarcastically, his face twisted with something that she could not, or would not, understand.

"Hello, husband" Elizabeth whispered, bobbing a little curtsey. Phillip snorted.

"Not your husband anymore, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Elizabeth murmured, recalling with acute embarrassment the very public divorce ceremony that had taken place the year of George's death, when she had not even turned up to defend herself. The charge was of adultery, and how could she deny it – after her display in court and on the day of the executions, everyone knew, or had at least guessed at, what had passed between she and George.

"Yes. How could you forget" Phillip's voice was bitter and harsh. Elizabeth met his gaze, blue eyes puzzled.

"You sound as though you hate me" she said quietely, "Do you hate me, Phillip?"

Phillip laughed rather wildly, "Of course I hate you, foolish girl! You cuckolded me"

Elizabeth flared up at once, "And? What did you expect, when you never loved me, never showed one smidgen of devotion towards me?"

"Don't think to blame this on me. You were determined not to love me from the moment of our betrothal. You didn't try to love me"

"Can I help it that I was fated to always love another? You were the one who asked for my hand, surely you had seen before how close George and I were? Surely you knew that I could not love you, a man old enough to be my father?"

Phillip looked as though she had slapped him in the face, "I – I thought...I thought that you would grow to love me"

Elizabeth, too, looked startled, "You loved me?"

"God's blood!" Phillip cried, then looked anxiously up at the sky above them. A thunderbolt crackled warningly over his head and he closed his eyes for a moment, composing himself.

"Of course I loved you" he continued quietely, "Well...well, maybe not love. But I wanted you. That's what made me ask for your hand, you were so tempting and young and beautiful. And when you were my wife...I did love you. I didn't show it, I know I didn't, but even if I had, would you have wanted me to love you? Would you have accepted that from me?"

Elizabeth shook her head, deciding truth was the best policy. She was still in shock from his words.

"No" she replied softly, "No. I loved George. I have always loved George and I will always do so"

"I knew that" Phillip mumbled, "I knew that you loved him, I could see it in your eyes. I knew that you loved him in a way that you could never love me. But I fooled myself into hoping that one day you might feel the same. I pretended to myself that those pretty little girls you bore were mine"

"Those pretty little girls that you hated?" I retorted sharply, "You loathed my girls"

"I loathed them because I knew that they were his. I wanted them to be mine and I knew that they were not"

Elizabeth felt a sudden rush of pity for this middle-aged man whom she had been married to for such a short time. She hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Phillip, I'm sorry" she mumbled, "I'm sorry that I didn't know that you really did love me as your wife. And I'm sorry that my cuckolding you embarrassed you so. I'm sorry I couldn't love you. Maybe, if it had been another life..." she trailed off with a slight shrug and a small smile. Phillip smiled slightly too, and shrugged his own hefty shoulders.

"I suppose you'll get to be with him now" he said slowly. Elizabeth nodded.

"Yes. I'm sorry"

"Don't be. You get your heart's desire at last. You can't be sorry for that" Phillip held out his meaty hand and Elizabeth took it tentatively. They shook hands, awkwardly.

"Did you remarry?" she asked suddenly, just as he turned away.

"Yes" he said, smiling brightly this time, "Yes. She loved me back"

"Is she pretty?"

"She has red hair" Phillip admitted with a chuckle. Elizabeth laughed too.

"And she gave you sons?"

"Two strapping lads. Thomas and Henry"

"I am glad of it"

"Good day. I am sure we will be meet again"

"I shall make sure of it. Good day"

As Phillip walked away, she became aware that it was the first full, honest conversation she had ever had with her husband.


	2. Henry

**A/N: Hey! Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and have a happy New Year – thank you very much for the reviews, please review some more **

"You did very well, Elizabeth" George's voice swam in the air around her, proud and loving, "This task, I fear, may be harder for you"

"Who is it?" Elizabeth asked anxiously, "Can you tell me?"

"You'll soon see. Here he comes" George's voice melted away and Elizabeth was left feeling alone and rather vulnerable.

King Henry VIII appeared before her. Elizabeth gasped and felt a red flush of anger colour her cheeks. She had not been back to his court since George's death, and had hoped never to see him again. This corpulent, twisted, selfish old man had killed her lover and her best friend, disgraced the little Princess Elizabeth, and signed the death warrants of many people that she had never met but truly believed to be innocent.

He was looking at her in puzzlement, and she scowled.

"Do you not recognise me, Henry?" she asked, relishing the ability to use his Christian name at last. He didn't much like this show of disrespect, his piggy eyes narrowing.

"You served my wife. Both of my wives" he deduced at last, but still he had not spoken her name, "Who are you, and what did I do to you?"

"I am Lady Elizabeth Hollington" she replied, holding her chin up high, "I served the good Queen Catherine and I served Queen Anne, who was my dearest friend. You killed her. You also killed the love of my life – you killed her brother George. And you took something else from me...something that I could also never get back"

Henry stood gormlessly for a few moments, "What was that?" he asked at last. His teeth were gritted and Elizabeth could see that his temper was rising; his bloated face was turning slowly purple.

"Don't you remember?" she took a step closer to him, glaring, "You ordered me to your bed one eve not long after my arrival at court. I was only young, and in love with another, whom I had been saving myself for. But who could refuse the mighty King of England?" her voice was dripping with sarcasm, "You, Sir, took my maidenhead. You took something that was not yours to take, not even mine to keep. It was for George, and you took it from me when it was rightfully his"

Henry's face was quite dark with rage now, and he took a threatening step closer to Elizabeth. She did not cower away from him as she once would have done. He could not hurt her now.

"Anne was a whore, and her brother a traitor! Between the two of them, I was greatly betrayed!"

"You don't believe that!" Elizabeth laughed scornfully, "Anne was your wife, you moved Heaven and Earth for her – " a warning crackle of lightning flashed overhead, "And he was your friend! George was your friend!"

Her eyes had suddenly filled with tears that she did not want him to see. She looked up at the shining clouds of Heaven above her.

"George, you don't want me to forgive him. You can't. He took what was yours and then he murdered you"

"You must forgive" George's voice came softly in her ear. She looked at the flabbergasted King in despair. How could she, how could she forgive this man?

"Are you in Hell?" she asked suddenly, "I do hope you are"

Henry looked at her, "I am here. I am in purgatory. Because I could not forgive"

"You should be in Hell" she retorted sharply, "Who could you not forgive?"

"Your beloved friend Anne" Henry snapped in return.

"Surely she told you that it was all lies? Surely she told you that?"

"Of course she did. But I did not believe her" Henry shuffled, looking almost embarrassed, "I wanted to believe her, but I cannot trust anyone"

"You can now. No-one has any reason to lie to you now" she looked coolly at him, "She was telling you the truth. It was Cromwell. He made those things up just to please you, and you let him fool you. But it was Cromwell that told lies"

Henry's small eyes widened. He looked at Elizabeth, deep in the eyes, as if trying to drag the honesty of her words from them for him to analyse.

"I'm sorry about your maidenhead" he said at last. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

"I can forgive you that, I suppose" she said grudgingly. And he disappeared.

She frowned, "George, what-?"

"Even God can see that you could not forgive any more than that. He must agree with your estimation of the King" George's voice grew very gentle, "I didn't need to have your maidenhead, Elizabeth. I love you all the same. You meant just as much to me as you would have if you had been a virgin when we first got together"

Elizabeth smiled, squaring her shoulders, "Who's next?"


	3. Jane

**A/N: Hey! Sorry it's been a while, thank you so much for the reviews! I wonder if you've guessed who this one will be...please review and thanks for reading!**

"You shan't like this one at all" George told her, and she could clearly hear his anxiety, "But remember, you must forgive, Elizabeth, even if you only forgive for something very little...as long as you forgive something. Please"

Elizabeth nibbled worriedly on her lip, "Is this the worst one yet?"

"Yes. Undoubtedly"

Elizabeth looked before her with a strong sense of trepidation. When the woman she was to forgive appeared, a rush of hatred burned through Elizabeth's veins like poison. This was the woman she hated more than anyone else on this earth; more than Henry, more than Cromwell, more than simpering Jane Seymour, much more than Phillip.

She loathed Jane Parker with a venom that sometimes scared her.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, flaring up at once, "I don't want you anywhere near me, I don't want to hear a word from your lips, I don't even want to look at your smug face – "

"It's not about what you want" Jane's lip curled, an expression Elizabeth was very familiar with, "If it was, I wouldn't be here. I don't wish to associate with whores"

Another crackle of thunder. Elizabeth took a step closer to her enemy.

"If you say one more thing like that, I'll rip every strand of your mousey hair from that empty head of yours, alright?" she hissed.

"Elizabeth!" George's voice came sternly in her ear, "You have to hear her out! Bess, my love, you have to. Please"

Elizabeth took a deep breath and a step back, folded her arms across her chest, and regarded Jane icily.

"Well? What do you have to say?"

"I had to forgive you to get here, even though you were not dead. You had my husband as your spokesperson. And I had to forgive"

"Are you in Hell?" Elizabeth's voice was maybe a little too eager, too bloodthirsty, for this time there was a flash of lightning. Jane raised her eyebrows.

"As much as you may wish I was, no, I am not" she still wore her smug expression.

"And why not?" Elizabeth cried, "Why not, Jane? Because I don't recall you ever doing one good thing in your life"

"I repented!" Jane protested, cheeks flushed pink with rage, "On the scaffold, I repented"

"Oh yes" Elizabeth's voice was bitter, sarcastic, "Yes, I remember hearing about that. Your last minute plea for mercy. You didn't mean it, Jane, you didn't care who you hurt when you stood up in court that day. You repented because you were on the scaffold and your neck was on the block and you knew you were going to die. You also knew that God would not forgive you. You're a murderer, Jane"

"No" Jane's voice was very soft, she was shaking her head frantically, "No, stop it. I am not a murderer. It was the King who murdered them, not me"

"Alright, I give you that" Elizabeth said coldly, "Maybe the King would have murdered Anne with or without your words. But not George. He would not have hurt George, not without what you said that day. I still don't understand why you said it. I will never understand"

"Because of you!" Jane screamed. The sudden loudness of her voice made Elizabeth wince, and there was a long silence before either of them resumed speaking.

"I did it because of you" Jane continued, her eyes full of hate, "Because you were everything I wasn't. Oh, you might not have been as rich as me, not from a family of good stock and position, but you were everything else. Everything he could have wanted. You were witty and clever and discussed theology, and I tried all those things, but he never listened to me like he listened to you. I tried to tempt him into my bed, I did, but then there was _you_, with your beauty and charm and your whore's tricks, tricks that he fell for over and over again. You were his best friend, you were his sisters' best friend, and he loved you. He loved you so much that I don't know how everyone who knew him didn't see it. He may as well have inked it on his face, it was so obvious! And you just took it for granted"

"Well that's where you're wrong" Elizabeth snapped, "I never took his love for granted. Never. I loved him. I love him now. I have loved him all of my life, just as he has with me, and you and Phillip – even though you were married to us – you didn't stand a chance" she paused, "Don't try to make me feel sorry for you either, Jane. It was fate, I keep telling you all, and none of you listen! God made George and I for each other, that was how it was always supposed to be, and you can't fix God's will, Jane. You cannot change it"

"I hated you so much" Jane whispered, "I still hate you. I hated you when we were alive and I hate you now that we are dead" she hesitated, "I used to see the two of you together, you know. When you were in his bed, in the place that was meant for me. I knew that it was just sex, just passion, but it wasn't like that with you two. With you two, everything was about _love_. Love was in every single thing the two of you did, and that was what hurt the most. There was no love in any of the few things I ever did with him"

"That's because he didn't love you" Elizabeth couldn't stop herself, even though she knew she was supposed to be being nice, "You know that, Jane, I don't know why you keep trying to fight it"

"It's not an easy thing to accept" Jane replied, "Not easy at all"

"I don't know what I can forgive you for" Elizabeth said despairingly, almost in tears, "I can't forgive you for what you said in court, for killing George, I can't! I just can't!"

"I don't want to help you" Jane began, her tone resigned, "But if I do not help you to forgive, then I shall stay here in purgatory. If I help you, I can have Heaven" she hesitated again, "If you forgive me for anything, I want you to forgive me for loving George. You don't understand what unrequited love feels like; you've had one true love and he loved you back. If you'd ever felt that, you would understand why I carried on fighting. Just forgive me for loving him"

Elizabeth looked at her, surprised, "Yes" she blurted out, "Yes, I can forgive you for that...he is so easy to love"

She wanted to take it back as soon as she had said it, for she had already determined that she would not forgive Jane anything. But before she could do so, Jane was gone, and this ordeal, at least, was over.

Elizabeth burst into tears.

"Bess, Bess, do not cry" George's voice came, soft and soothing, "You have done so, so well. I am so proud of you. I know that one was hard for you. The hardest yet, I believe. You must not cry"

"I won't" Elizabeth snivelled, "I won't. God know, I've been through worse than this! I'm going to hold my head high and face whoever is next"


	4. Lisbeth

**A/N: Hi! Thank you very much for reading this, I'm really glad you're enjoying it...a few more reviews would be nice though. Thanks so much to Lady Eleanor Boleyn! This one might be a little sad and strange and rather unexpected, but we shall have to see...**

"It'll get easier now, you said, didn't you?" Elizabeth no longer felt strange speaking into thin air, because she knew that George was doing the same to her.

"Yes" there was a smile in his voice, "Although...this might be difficult to understand. At first. It took me a long time to get my head around it"

"Why? Who is it?"

George did not reply, and Elizabeth could only deduce that this was because a pretty young girl had appeared and was standing before her with an embarrassed, awkward little smile. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, and was the image of Elizabeth at that age, with her glowing red hair, big blue eyes and delicate, eye-catching figure.

"I don't know you" Elizabeth looked puzzled, "Unless...good grief, you're not me, are you?"

"No" the girl gave a pretty, girlish little laugh, then regarded her mother with her lips pressed together anxiously, "Papa didn't understand either, at first" she paused, "You never knew me because...because I died before I was born"

Elizabeth looked bemused, "I'm sorry, I still don't - ?"

"I died at...at my Aunt's wedding. To the King of England"

Elizabeth stared at her for a few long moments. Then she gasped, clapping her hands to her mouth, and stared at the girl with a mixture of shock, horror and amazement in her eyes.

"Then you...you're my baby?" she breathed, eyes filling up with tears, "Oh my goodness, you're my baby!"

She flew towards her daughter and enfolded her in her arms, breathing her in, squeezing her so tightly that had the girl not already been dead she would have ceased to breathe. Elizabeth kissed the flaming hair, curlier than her own, stroked the ivory cheeks of the child she had never known.

"What is your name?" she asked urgently, "I must know my own daughter's name!"

"Lisbeth" the girl stated, "My name is Lisbeth"

"My Lisbeth" Elizabeth whispered, tears streaming down her face, "Have you been looking after your Papa for me all this time?"

"Of course I have" Lisbeth replied with a smile, and Elizabeth revelled in the fact that her daughter was already desperate to please and impress her.

"Then you've been a good girl. But what am I to forgive you for? You've done nothing wrong, my dear, you never had the chance"

"You have to forgive me for dying" Lisbeth said, and there were tears rolling down her cheeks now, "Please, Mama, you have to forgive me for leaving you"

"Oh, my angel!" Elizabeth cried, and pulled Lisbeth to her for another embrace, "Of course I forgive you! There's nothing to forgive, it wasn't your fault, never your fault..."

Lisbeth was gone as suddenly as she had came, and Elizabeth found her arms empty and wanting. Wiping her eyes, she wrapped her arms around herself and hugged her arms to her body, smiling.

"I can't believe it" she said out loud and heard George's warm, reassuring laugh.

"I know, my love, neither could I" he paused, "Just one more person now, Bessie, one more, and then we can be together and will never have to be apart. Not ever again"

"Can I ask you something, first?" a thoughtful frown had stolen over Elizabeth's face.

"Of course" George replied, and once again she could hear his smile.

"Why Lisbeth? I thought that it might be...oh, I don't know...Cromwell or Queen Catherine or even that simpering slut Jane. I didn't think...why?"

George chuckled at her confusion, "Sometimes you imagine that the people who have hurt you, ruined your life, caused you pain, will be the only ones that need your forgiveness. But sometimes it turns out that the people who made your life the best it could be need your forgiveness too. And they changed your life. But Lisbeth changed your life too. She made you stronger, tougher, harder. She made it easier for you to cope when nearly everything you loved had been taken away from you, because you'd already learnt how to suffer. Do you understand?"

"Yes" Elizabeth smiled, "Yes, I understand. Oh, I can't wait to see you again, and be yours"


	5. Anne

**A/N: Last chapter now! Who will the last person be? Hm. I don't think it's too hard to guess...sorry this has taken me so long! Please review :D**

George chuckled, "I can't wait to be with you, either. And you'll like this one"

"Will I?" Elizabeth's face lit up, "Oh, good. But how can anyone be better than my lost-long dau-Anne!"

Anne smiled, beautiful as ever, dark and alluring and stunning. Elizabeth rushed at her friend and flung her arms around her, squeezing the slender body tight as she had not been able to do for the longest time. Anne clung back, and both of them felt their shoulders grow damp with each other's tears. When they finally moved apart, Elizabeth could not stop smiling.

"But I have nothing to forgive you for, my dearest friend, nothing at all! Oh, I missed you so much – " she went to embrace Anne again, but Anne carefully disentangled herself. Her smile was serene, her eyes twinkling.

"There is something, Liz. Many things, actually"

"I don't care!" Elizabeth cried exuberantly, "I don't care, I forgive anything and everything you claim to have done, I am just so pleased to see you – "

"I know you're happy, my love, but you have to hear Anne out" George's voice spoke gently in her ear and Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly in an attempt to calm down. When she opened them again, Anne wore a different expression, of anxiety and regret.

"I wasn't always a good friend to you, Elizabeth. Not like you were to me"

Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest but, remembering George's words, she closed it again and listened.

"There were times when I...when I put my best interests, my position, my ambitions, before what you wanted. And that was wrong of me. I sent George away on those Ambassadorial trips when I knew that you two hated being apart and you resented my doing so. I flaunted my pregnancy when you had just miscarried your child. I asked you to lay with the King to keep me safe- and I am glad to this day that you refused, for I know it was a terrible request. Through my actions, through the fact that I could not give the King a son and held mild flirtations with other men, I helped the love of your life, my own brother, on his way to the scaffold. And I did not want to do that to you, any of it. I can think of a dozen other things, and I regret them all. Please, Liz. Forgive me" her voice was desperate and there were tears in her eyes.

Elizabeth stared at her for a few moments. She did not quite know what to say. She remembered all the incidents, and more, and how they had made her feel - but she still loved Anne. Anne was like a sister, Anne was her closest friend, and nothing bad that Anne had done could overcome all the good she had done in return.

"Anne, I understand why all these things happened. And I forgive you for every last one. All the bad things you did are completely outweighed by the good" she wanted to embrace Anne, but Anne had disappeared. And with her departure was the end of this ordeal.

A twining golden staircase appeared, reaching far into the gleaming white clouds above, miles away from the blazing fires of Hell. Elizabeth ascended the staircase, and at last she felt at peace, she was happy, and she was so close to seeing him again...after all these years...so close...

He was waiting for her at the top of the steps. Her George, as handsome as he had ever been, maybe more so. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he pulled her to him, holding her close, kissing her hair, her cheeks, her lips. She clung on, she would never let go, not again. She sobbed at his next words.

"Elizabeth Hollington, I am so proud of you"


End file.
